Primary menu

Post navigation

James Clapper, 1/5/17: “We need a U.S. Information Agency on steroids…”

“I’m speaking personally, this is not an institutional response. As I commented earlier to Senator McCain, I do think we need a U.S. Information Agency on steroids that deals with the totality of the information realm, and to mount a — in all forms, and to include social media.”

– James Clapper, U.S. Director of National Intelligence, Jan 5, 2017

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Information_Agency
“The United States Information Agency (USIA), which existed from 1953 to 1999, was a United States agency devoted to public diplomacy. In 1999, USIA’s broadcasting functions were moved to the newly created Broadcasting Board of Governors, and its exchange and non-broadcasting information functions were given to the newly created Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. The agency was previously known overseas as the United States Information Service (USIS).”

U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington, about foreign cyber threats. Admiral Michael Rogers, director, National Security Agency, and Marcel Lettre, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, also are scheduled to testify.

Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act

Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act is a bipartisan bill which was introduced by the United States Congress on 10 May 2016. The bill was initially entitled the Countering Information Warfare Act.

The bipartisan legislation was written in March 2016 by U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R, OH) and Chris Murphy (D, CT). It was additionally introduced in the United States House of Representatives in a bipartisan fashion; co-sponsors included Congressmen Adam Kinzinger (R, IL) and Ted Lieu (D, CA).

In both the House and Senate the bill was included in the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2017. It passed the House in this fashion in a conference report vote on 2 December 2016. The Senate then passed the measure in a conference report on December 8 by a tally of 92–7.
…
On 23 December 2016, President Obama signed the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act into law.